Archive for Aggravated or Serial Sexual Assault

15th September 2016

Melinda Korosi (33) was murdered on 15th September 2016 at her home in Orton Road, Carlisle. She was beaten to death with a sharpened rock.

Ms Korosi was an English language teacher. She had two children and was a Hungarian national.

In March 2017, at Carlisle Crown Court, Miklos Verebes (29), Ms Korosi’s former partner and the father of her children, was found guilty of murder and three counts of rape between 2013 and 2016. He was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve a minimum of 28 years before he could be considered for parole.

Jurors watched a video of a police interview that Ms Korosi gave six days before her death in which she outlined regular sexual, physical and emotional abuse that she suffered at the hands of Verebes. Verebes had previously been jailed for an assault on Ms Korosi. He was also a Hungarian national.

Verebes murdered his Ms Korosi just two days after he was released without charge after she had reported to police that he had repeatedly raped her.

The Court heard Ms Korosi had already been classed as at high risk of harm following an assessment by an independent domestic violence adviser.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating the contact that Ms Korosi had with Cumbria Constabulary.

Two Cumbria detectives are facing a misconduct inquiry.

An IPCC spokeswoman said: “Based on the evidence collected so far the IPCC investigator has decided there is an indication of misconduct by a detective constable and a detective sergeant at the force. Both officers have been notified. All other officers involved in this case are being treated as witnesses at this time.”

Following Verebes’s convictions, Ms Korosi’s mother Marta Hegyi Csiscman said she loved her daughter with her “whole heart”. She said: “It is very difficult to accept that she is no more, I can never embrace her again and I cannot help her achieve her goals. There are many questions and I don’t know if there will ever be answers to them, I only know that my big daughter of whom I was always proud did not deserve this and she will never be able to tell me what had happened and why. She can never make her dreams come true and cannot raise her children and I can never help her in anything anymore.”

Died 5th December 2014

The body of a 38 year old woman was found murdered by police in a bedroom of a home in Springfield Drive, Falkirk, Scotland at 12.30am on 5th December 2014. She has not yet been publicly identified.

Steven Raymond Mathieson (38) has been charged with her murder and abducting and raping two other women. He is alleged to have carried out the crimes at his home.

Mathieson made neither plea nor declaration at a brief private hearing at Falkirk Sheriff Court on 8th December 2014. Depute fiscal Naomi Walker appeared for the Crown.

Police in Forth Valley Division of the Scottish police service are continuing their enquiries to establish her identity and determine the full circumstances.

After the discovery of the woman’s body, Chief Inspector Mandy Paterson, Local Area Commander said: “Our enquiries into how the woman died are ongoing and detectives and forensic officers are carrying out a thorough investigation at the scene. For this particularly quiet area within the community this will be an unsettling time, however I can confirm that we currently have a man in police custody and we are not looking for anyone else in connection with our enquiry. I would ask residents to be patient with us while we carry out the necessary door-to-door enquiries and we are committed to returning the area to normality as soon as possible.”

Note: This report was drawn from reports on Police Scotland, the BBC and STV News.

Died 14th March 2003

Jane Longhurst (31) was strangled to death in a flat in Waterloo Street, Brighton, Sussex on 14th March 2003. Her body was desecrated and later found burning in woodland in Wiggonholt Common near Pulborough, West Sussex on 19th April. Graham Coutts (then 35) was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Jane Longhurst was a very popular special needs teacher and talented viola player, who lived in Shaftesbury Road, Brighton, with her partner. She worked at a local school and assisted with the Brighton Youth Orchestra.

Coutts was the partner of Ms Longhurst’s close friend, Lisa Stevens, also a teacher. He killed Jane Longhurst at the flat he shared with Ms Stevens in Waterloo Street, Hove. He is believed to have raped her when she was unconscious and to have sexually abused her body when dead. He kept the body for 35 days, at first in a shed, and later, in a storage box, at the Big Yellow storage warehouse in Brighton. He visited her body at the warehouse on several occasions for short periods. Detectives found a used condom and strongly suspected sexual activity. On 18th April, Coutts wheeled the box containing Ms Longhurst’s now very de-composed body to his car, kept it overnight and then the next day drove out to the countryside and set her body on fire.

Liz Longhurst believes her daughter had been “groomed” by Coutts so she wouldn’t suspect him. She said “I think about Jane all the time. I still have questions. I do think about how much planning he had done. Had he been watching Jane, just biding his time? She went to his home to see the new kitten he and Lisa had bought. I feel that even that was a ploy to reel her in. Jane was so gentle, so trusting. She was easy bait.”

Police believe Coutts may have been particularly attracted by Jane Longhurst because she was pretty and had an air of innocence about her. She also looked very young and had a very beautiful neck. Her mother described her as a “very spiritual person”.

Jailing Coutts for life, Judge Richard Brown said: “Everything that this court has heard about Jane showed her to be the sort of person who enriched all those who came into contact with her. The undoubted love of her partner, her life, her work and her music and her family screamed out of every page of the evidence I have heard in this case. In seeking perverted sexual gratification by way of your sordid and evil fantasies you have taken her life and devastated the lives of all those she loved and who loved her. By persisting in your denial you have put them through the ordeal of this courtroom and have forced them to live the last moments of her life and by the unbelievable degradation of her body you have shown not one jot of remorse.”

Coutts had had a fascination with strangling women since he was 15 years old and had a history of abusive behaviour towards females. Former partner Sandra Gates reported that he once said: “I want to rape and strangle a woman.” This was some 10 years before he killed Ms Longhurst. Another ex-partner told how she caught him hiding in a wardrobe watching her young daughter undress. The woman was so worried she persuaded him to seek professional help. Two former girlfriends of Coutts were reported to have agreed to his requests for “consensual” strangulation.

Coutts saw a psychiatrist with the old Brighton Health Authority in the early Nineties but after an initial consultation refused treatment. He told a doctor that he feared he would one day kill a woman. The court heard he regularly viewed extreme pornography on the internet and for some 8 years, downloaded thousands of pictures involving murder, rape, strangulation and necrophilia. Records show he was active on the internet on evenings immediately before and after killing Jane. The night before her death he downloaded pictures of dead women, strangulation, rape and murder.

After sentencing, Ms Longhurst’s sister Sue Barnett and her mother Liz Longhurst wept in the public gallery. Coutts’ former partner, Sandra Gates, leant towards him over the dock and shouted in his face: “You pervert.”

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Dennis, who was in charge of the case, said outside court: “A very dangerous man has been put away and I’m very pleased for that.”

Coutts was convicted of murder on 3rd February 2004, and sentenced to a life term serving a minimum of 30 years. Coutts compounded the agony of Jane Longhurst’s family and friends by alleging she died after a “consensual asphyxial sex session” went wrong. He subsequently challenged both the sentence and the conviction. The original tariff of 30 years was reduced to 26 years on appeal on 26th January 2005. The conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal on 19th July 2006, and a new trial started on 12th June 2007. He was again found guilty on 4th July 2007.

In 2009, following a long campaign led by Liz Longhurst, possession of sexually violent and extreme pornography including torture, rape and necrophilia became illegal and was included in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. The ban was backed by Jane Longhurst’s MP David Lepper and Liz Longhurst’s MP Martin Salter as well as Harriet Harman MP, the then Home Secretary David Blunkett MP and many others. They presented a petition to Parliament of more than 50,000 signatures. Anyone in possession of extreme sexually violent images now faces up to three years in jail.

Note: This report was drawn from reports in the Daily Mail, the BBC and the Argus.

FOD Comment:

Liz Longhurst has expressed disappointment that the legislation she fought for, is still not widely used and that judges are able to rule such evidence inadmissable in cases of rape and murder. She cites the case of Joanna Yeates who was strangled by Vincent Tabak. He too had accessed sexually violent pornography and alleged that he killed by accident. He was found guilty, but the jury had to make its decision lacking key evidence.

On the eve of the tenth anniversary of Jane Longhurst’s death, For Our Daughters salutes Liz Longhurst’s courage and acknowledges the depth of her grief and that of other family members and friends. Jane, your life is an inspiration to us. Rest in Peace.

Died Between 11th and 17th October 2012.

Catherine Gowing was raped and murdered at her home in New Brighton, Flintshire, Wales, between 11th October and 17th October, 2012. Her body was mutilated and dismembered.

Clive Sharp (46) of Gwynedd, admitted killing her and was sentenced to life at Mold Crown Court in Flintshire. He will have to serve 37 years before he can be considered for parole.

Ms Gowing was a vet who worked in Mold, Flintshire. She was Irish, originally from County Offaly in the Republic of Ireland. More than 300 people attended a funeral for her in Kinnitty, County Offaly, in January 2013.

Her sister, Emma Maguire, told mourners she was “the closest person to perfection that I had the privilege to know and love”. She said Ms Gowing had been a “wonderful daughter” to their parents, and described her as “a gift from God” adding “She was beautiful in beauty’s truest form, a soul filled with goodness,”. She said her sister “loved animals and being able to practice as a vet was for her a dream come through”.

The parish priest, Michael O’Meara, said the community in County Offaly were struggling to come to terms with the circumstances of Ms Gowing’s death. He told her family and friends “I know there’s no words of mine that can really be of any comfort on this day for you”.

Ms Gowing’s employer, Esmor Evans, of Evans Veterinary Practice in Mold, described Ms Gowing as a “very dear and gentle person”. He said Ms Gowing joined the practice in May 2011, after being recommended by a friend who had also travelled from Ireland.

After the killer was sentenced, Emma Maguire made the following tribute “What we do for ourselves dies with us, what we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. She was a beautiful light, she shone very brightly. She enriched the lives of all she encountered, all God’s creatures. Her light is gone from our mortal world. She now shines elsewhere.”

The judge Mr Justice Griffith-Williams sentencing Sharp, said: “You are on any view a very serious danger to women. What happened in that period of nearly four hours is known only to you,” he added.This is a horrific, cold hearted murder, carried out to gratify your perverted sexual desires”

The court heard Sharp was fulfilling “a longstanding fantasy of imprisoning, raping and murdering a woman”. It was something he had revealed while on a treatment programme for sex offenders in the 1990s. He had previously been jailed twice for rape and sexual assaults.

Ms Gowing shared a house in Cae Isa, New Brighton near Mold with a friend, a fellow vet, who was in a relationship with the killer. The court heard Ms Gowing did not like the defendant, but out of loyalty to her friend she had not told her, although she had confided in others. The court heard that her friend had flown back to see her family in Ireland and that Sharp knew this. He then drove from Gwynedd to Flintshire, let himself into the house in the middle of the night and attacked Ms Gowing.

On Friday, 19th October North Wales Police confirmed Ms Gowing’s car had been found burned-out, close to a disused quarry near her home. Divers and police searched a pool in the quarry. At that time, Detective Inspector Iestyn Davies appealed for anyone who was in and around the area of the disused quarry in Pinfold Lane in Alltami to come forward.

Andrew Thomas QC, prosecuting, said: “This was a sexually-motivated murder in which the defendant entered the house in the middle of the night, tied Miss Gowing up and raped her. He killed her then mutilated her body by cutting it into pieces and disposing of it in and near to the River Dee. He also disposed of evidence, for example by setting fire to Miss Gowing’s car in a quarry. ”

Following an intensive search, Ms Gowings remains were found in different locations. However, not all parts of her body were recovered. Sharp’s DNA was found on some remains found at a quarry and near the River Dee.

Sharp eventually confessed to her murder. However, he did not provide information to the police to assist the search for the rest of Ms Gowing’s body.

Sharp pleaded guilty on 14th January 2013. The judge said there could only be one sentence – that of life imprisonment. However he said: “There are a number of concerns about this case which lead me to the view that I should have time to reflect upon it.” The judge said he appreciated the delay would add to the upset of Ms Gowing’s family, but he said careful assessment was needed. He asked for a complete factual picture of the defendant’s previous convictions and previous reports “where he expresses his fantasies”. He said “ I have to work out what the minimum term you will serve is before the Parole Board consider you for release – if you are ever to be released”

In February when Sharp returned to court for sentencing Mr Justice Griffith-Williams told him that he would have imposed a minimum term of 42 years but for the fact that he had pleaded guilty. The judge gave no explanation as to why the sentence was not a whole life sentence.

Detective Superintendent Mark Pierce said: “I doubt a tear will be shed if he is never released” DS Pierce stressed this was a minimum term, and said Sharp would only be released when he was no longer considered a danger to women which “may never be so”.

Teams of 40 specially trained police officers and underwater divers spent nearly three weeks searching for Ms Gowing, before the first human remains were uncovered at a shallow pond in Sealand. The location was close to where Sharp had once lived with his mother. Two days later, more remains were found at the River Dee in Higher Ferry, Chester.

Despite the largest search in North Wales Police history, the force says it has been unable to recover all of her remains, with Sharp failing to provide any information ahead of his conviction.

from Jean Calder

Every day brings further allegations of serial abuse of young girls by Jimmy Savile, at the BBC, in two children’s homes and three hospitals, including maximum security Broadmoor. The Metropolitan Police, co-ordinating the police investigation, have confirmed they are now in contact with 60 potential victims, with 340 lines of inquiry and continue to liaise with 14 police forces. They have officially recorded 12 allegations, but expect this number to grow.

Following earlier apparent paralysis in the face of allegations about offences on its premises by one of its biggest stars, the BBC has apologised and declared it will undertake three separate inquiries. The first, which will start straight away, will examine why the Newsnight programme that investigated the allegations of sexual abuse was not aired, while two sycophantic tribute programmes to Savile went ahead. A second will examine whether culture and practice at the BBC at the time enabled Savile’s abuse. This will wait until police inquiries are complete. The third inquiry will apparently relate to more general allegations of sexual harassment at the BBC.

Rob Wilson M.P. has called for a genuinely independent public inquiry into the dropping of Newsnight’s investigation into Savile, but it seems a public inquiry with a much broader remit is now demanded. A pattern is emerging not just of cruel indifference to the abuse of young girls, but also systemic and institutional sexism and a level of active collusion and cover-up which suggests possible conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Narrow inquiries with limited remit simply will not do.

The Department of Health (DoH) has said it will investigate the decision to appoint Sir Jimmy Savile as head of a taskforce overseeing Broadmoor hospital in 1988, where he volunteered for 40 years, reportedly held keys and abused young vulnerable patients. However, health service managers have shown less interest in investigating allegations that hospital managers colluded with Savile’s abuse of female patients. Criminal justice agencies seem similarly reluctant to acknowledge and examine their own past failures, but it surely is only a matter of time. Yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph lists at least 6 lost opportunities to bring Savile to justice which appear to have been missed or even sabotaged by the police or crown prosecution service.

We’ve heard several commentators and journalists suggest the attitudes at the BBC and elsewhere were ‘permissive’ in the 1960s and 1970s and that things are different now. Yet we know that sexual abuse of teenage girls is widespread. In June this year, Sue Berelowitz, deputy children’s commissioner for England told M.P.s that “sexual exploitation of children is happening all over the country.” She quoted a police officer from a “very lovely, leafy, rural part of the country” who had told her: “There isn’t a town, village or hamlet in which children are not being sexually exploited.” She told of girls as young as 11 “summoned” via BlackBerry Messenger, and forced to perform oral sex on a line-up of gang members, one after another. Berelowitz called on MPs and everyone else to “lay aside their denial”.

In Rochdale, where there was systematic and often violent sexual abuse of teenage girls, their allegations were repeatedly ignored by agencies who, like the abusers, considered the girls to be prostitutes. Despite strong evidence, the CPS refused to prosecute the cases, something that changed only when Nazir Afzal took over as senior crown prosecutor. There are many more such cases, most of which will never get to trial.

The widespread publicity which followed the Rochdale case focussed on the victims’ ethnicity rather than their gender, suggesting that the girls may have been targeted by male perpetrators of Pakistani origin because they were ‘white’ rather than because they were young females. The media coverage of Savile’s offences has focussed on his ‘paedophilia’, stressing the victims’ age and vulnerability rather than their gender. Yet it was the fact that they were young females that made them targets, and sexism, rather than age and even disability, which made them most vulnerable to abuse. All child abuse involves abuse of power and boys are sometimes victims and suffer grievously. However, it is girls who are overwhelmingly more likely to experience sexual abuse, especially of a serial nature. It is sexism which creates contempt for young girls so deep-rooted that an adult man can serially abuse them and others treat it as a fact of life. It is sexism which leads police and prosecutors to ignore victims’ allegations – and others to keep quiet because a donation is more important than girls’ safety.

There are many agencies which have informally and for years been treating girls over 12 (and sometimes under that age) as if they could give informed consent. They have failed to act if young girls appear ‘willing’ and in respect of allegations of rape or assault, have applied to them all the prejudices to which adult victims are subject. It is easier and cheaper to believe that girls and women fantasise, make malicious allegations or get drunk and lead men on, than to mount effective investigations.

In an excellent article in the Guardian Jonathan Freedland linked the police’s treatment of Savile’s victims with that of other rape victims. He wrote: “There are big questions here for the police. Some wonder if the Met is overdue another “Macpherson moment“, in which it is forced to confront its own institutional sexism the way the Stephen Lawrence case laid bare its racism. It is at least clear that it has enormous work to do to win the trust of women, so that it becomes a first instinct of those who are attacked to report the fact.”

Jane Root, controller of BBC2 from 1999-2004, told the Observer there needed to be a examination of perceived sexism in the BBC, and “throughout television” in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was, she said “this sexist atmosphere, although a totally different thing, that assisted a very dedicated paedophile such as Savile to operate in the middle of it all,”.

There seems little doubt that she is right about that – except that, in our view, sexism is not a ‘different’ thing, but lies at the root of almost all sexual offences against females, whatever their age. And though the abuse of a girl is an even crueler offence than the abuse of an adult woman, the difference is in degree, not in kind.

We need a full independent public inquiry, not just into how key agencies and institutions mishandled the Savile case, but also ways in which those same agencies and institutions – principally the police and CPS – have, over the years, failed countless victims of rape and sexual assault.

Found Dead 22nd January 2012

Irene Lawless (67) was found dead on 22nd January 2012 at her home on the Bryndulais estate in Llanllwni, a small village in Carmarthenshire, Wales. She had been raped. She lived alone.

In August 2012, Darren Jackson (26) from Bryndulais pleaded guilty to the murder of Ms Lawless at Swansea Crown Court. He admitted to two counts of rape, but pleaded not guilty to a third count. Elwen Evans QC, for the prosecution, said they would not seek a trial on that charge.

Jackson was remanded in custody. Judge Keith Thomas told the court that he would be sentenced at a later date by Mr Justice Royce, probably on or around 3rd September 2012. Dyfed-Powys Police confirmed that the case against Jackson, originally from Kent, had been adjourned.

After her death, local people spoke of their shock. Ms Lawless’ son, Jason, said that his mother was “a loving mother and grandmother, a really peaceful person who loved the garden, animals and her paintings”. She had lived on the village’s quiet Bryndulais estate for many years.

At the time, Linda Davies-Evans, a county councillor for Llanfihangel-ar-Arth, described Ms Lawless as “a well liked and independent lady”. She said: “This is a shock to us all. This is a tragic incident to have happened in this quiet community in which everybody knows each other. It is a sad time for her family and friends and I send my deepest condolences to them all.”

Following her death, two other men, aged 20 and 30, were arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.

The investigation was led by Detective Chief Inspector Pam Kelly from Dyfed-Powys Police.

Note: This report was drawn from reports in the South Wales Evening Post and the BBC.

by Jean Calder

Over the past few weeks there has been widespread discussion about the grooming and sexual exploitation of white girls by Asian men in Rochdale. Most of the debate has focused upon whether or not there was a racial aspect to the abuse. Blinkered rightwing commentators, including those of the BNP, insisted that the abuse involved racist offending against white girls by Asian Muslim men. Equally blinkered ‘progressives’ rejected any focus on either race or gender, emphasising the vulnerability of the victims and the fact that the majority of men who abuse children are white.

Typical amongst the latter group was Keith Vaz M.P., Chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, who said: “I do not believe it is a race issue.” adding “What we need to do is to have a proper far-reaching, thorough investigation into these crimes and causes of these crimes. There are a lot of questions about the way in which organisations that have care of young girls have dealt with them and allowed them to be put into these positions”(my emphasis)… “I think we do need to look into this but I think it is quite wrong to stigmatise a whole community. ”

Both groups, obsessed with the issue of race and determined either to condemn or defend Pakistani Muslim men, have refused to address the attitudes of misogyny and contempt for women and girls which lie at the heart of these offences. Both groups have seemed indifferent to the safety of Asian women, happy to make the racist and sexist assumption that abusive Asian men protect ‘their own’ females.

In contrast, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi – encouraged rather touchingly by her Pakistani father – has called for condemnation of what she calls “This small minority who see women as second class citizens, and white women probably as third class citizens”. Baroness Warsi said of the abusers: “These were grown men, some of them religious teachers, or running businesses, with young families of their own. They knew this was wrong. Whether or not these girls were easy prey, they knew it was wrong.”

Nazir Afzal, also of Pakistani origin, was the courageous chief prosecutor for the CPS in the North West who reversed the original, flawed decision not to prosecute two members of the Rochdale gang. Other trials are in the pipeline. His was an early voice of both reason and outrage, acknowledging that poisonous attitudes to women in sections of the male Pakistani community gave rise to sexual exploitation. He said of the Rochdale abusers “These men are not defined by their race; they are defined by their attitude to young girls. They almost feel they have a right to control these young girls because no one else will. But they do it for their own nefarious purposes.”

Mr Afzal has reminded an apparently indifferent liberal intelligentsia that young Asian girls may also be suffering abuse, but feel unable to report it. It is to be hoped that the dreadful case of 17 year old Shafilea Ahmed – allegedly murdered because she refused to conform to a traditional life of female obedience and compliance – and that of her sister, allegedly silenced by fear and loyalty, will cause them to reconsider.

Baroness Warsi called for openness in the Islamic community, saying “In mosque after mosque after mosque, this (sexual exploitation of girls) should be raised as an issue so that anybody who is remotely involved should start to feel that the community is turning on them. Communities have a responsibility to stand up and say: ‘This is wrong, this will not be tolerated’.”

In the same way, elsewhere in our community, people such as police, journalists, editors, social workers, lawyers, charity workers and teachers, should examine their own role in failing to address issues of abuse against women and girls.

We surely all have a responsibility to say “This is wrong, this will not be tolerated.”

By Jean Calder

There are two false assumptions that have distorted debate about the Rochdale abuse case (hardly ‘grooming’ given that the victims were actively and serially abused).

The first is that victims were targeted because they were vulnerable or white. This confuses the issue, missing the fact that they were targeted primarily because of their gender, by misogynist men who thought these unprotected girls easy prey.

A second associated assumption, unfortunately echoed by the judge, is that these abusive men were protective of women within their own communities. In fact, abusive men who attack women outside their homes often pose a serious threat to those within them, though they may express and justify their violence in different ways.

The fact that such men may express authoritarian religious and social attitudes about women and enforce their confinement within the home is evidence of a desire to control rather than protect, to limit rights rather than defend them. Such attitudes increase rather than lessen the danger and help silence victims and witnesses.

Reportedly, several of these men told their victims that “in their country” sex with minors is acceptable. In the light of this, it is to be hoped that the police and social services offer assistance to all women and children who have had contact with these dangerous men.

Died 5th February 2011

Nikitta Grender (19), was heavily pregnant when she was raped and stabbed to death by Carl Whant (27) before he set alight her flat in Broadmead Park, Liswerry, Newport, Gwent. Nikitta Grender was two weeks away from giving birth to a baby girl she had named Kelsey-May. She died before the fire started.

Whant, a former nightclub bouncer, of Bettws, Newport, was unanimously convicted of murder, rape, child destruction and arson. On 22nd February 2012, at Newport Crown Court, he was sentenced to life with a minimum tariff of 35 years.

Whant stabbed Ms Grender in the neck and the stomach, then set fire to the flat, leaving her pet dog to burn to death. He then returned to a party where he had been all night with Ms Grender’s boyfriend, Ryan Mayes, who is also his cousin. Ms Grender’s badly-burned body was discovered at the flat in Broadmead Park, Lliswerry, Newport, on 5 February 2011 after firefighters were called.

Judge Mr Justice Griffith Williams told Whant he had left the party because he “wanted to have sex with” Ms Grender. The judge said that because Whant knew she would not agree, he “went armed with a knife, prepared to rape her.” adding “The likelihood is that she let you in, believing that Ryan was with you.”

The judge told Whant that the murder had “left her family, Ryan Mayes, and her friends bereft. The subsequent loss was compounded by the knowledge that her murderer had raped her and then tried to destroy her body. The grief was made all the more deep because you did not scruple to make the wholly false allegation that she had consensual sex with you”

The judge said Whant acted with “quite extraordinary hypocrisy” after the murder was discovered, and even took flowers to the Grender household. He said that having listened to his evidence he concluded that Whant was a “calculating, vain and devious” individual.

But the judge said said the full facts of what happened on the morning of the murder may never be known. He added: “The explanation for these crimes lies in part in your vanity. You told the police that she was ‘feisty’ and in my view she told you that she was going to report you to the police for raping her, and that is why you murdered her.”

DNA tests confirmed Whant had had sex with Ms Grender, and scratches were found on his wrists. Whant initially denied any contact with Ms Grender, but later changed his story and claimed he had had consensual sex with her after an invitation by Mr Mayes.

Mr Mayes described this and the claim that Ms Grender consented as “preposterous”.

Ms Grender’s uncle, Michael Brunnock, read a statement on behalf of her parents Marcia Grender and Paul Brunnock, saying: “The last 12 months have been harder for us than you could ever imagine. And as a family we remain in total disbelief as to what has happened. Nikitta was so young and beautiful and together with Ryan, they were to become a very proud set of parents to Kelsey-May. This has been ripped from them by Carl Whant, who has never had the decency to tell us the truth. For us to see our grandchild for the first time in a mortuary was the most heartbreaking thing we have ever had to do. Nikitta was so special and will remain in our hearts until we die. We will never deal with the tragic events that have stolen our family from us but hope we can at least start to understand what has happened.”

Chief Superintendent Geoff Ronayne said the 35 year sentence was the longest he could remember in his 30 years with Gwent Police. He said Whant had “never admitted his guilt, given any indication about why he committed this terrible crime or provided Nikitta’s family with any answers”.

Mr Ronayne said the event had been a “harrowing ordeal” for the family and Mr Mayes, and he commended them for their “bravery and dignity”, commenting “I’m hopeful that this conviction brings to an end one part of that process, although without doubt they will continue to mourn and grieve Nikitta and Kelsey-May for the rest of their lives.”

Shortly after Ms Grender’s death, her friend Jenna White (17) said she was looking forward to being a mother, adding “She was an amazing girl – always happy, beautiful and lovely”.

Note: This report was compiled from reports in the BBC and the Daily Mail.

Died March 2011

Elizabetta Pecka (95) died two months after being attacked and sexually assaulted on 21st January 2011, in her bedroom at the Bradford nursing home in which she lived. Originally from Slovenia, she was a resident at Rosewood Court nursing home in Shakespeare Close, Berkerend and had gone to bed when her attacker broke into her room.

Scott Sorby (21)attacked Elizabetta Pecka, hitting her at least ten times and leaving her with fractures to her cheekbones, jawbone and eye socket. He dragged her into her bathroom where he also attempted to rape her. It was described as a prolonged and ferocious attack. Prosecutor Adrian Waterman QC told Bradford Crown Court that Ms Pecka had been relatively well and independent before the attack, but never recovered from the trauma and died in hospital two months later.

She was found by a member of staff, kneeling and covered in blood in her bathroom. Her lower clothing was around her ankles. Blood covered the walls and floor. Ms Pecka told medical staff her attacker was an animal who had treated her like a dog. On the way to hospital, she pleaded with paramedics to let her die. She was taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary, but her condition “relentlessly and inexorably” worsened. She died from bronchial pneumonia, due to multiple injuries. Medical experts linked her death to the attack.

Sorby, formerly of Binns Lane, Lidget Green, Bradford, was 20 at the time of the attack, living in a probation hostel, and on licence after serving half of a four and a half year jail sentence for the rape and assault of a 20 year old woman student when he was 17. He had broken into a cabin where she was working as a security guard, hit her and tried to rape her. He was freed in October 2012 despite a psychiatrist’s warning that he posed a “very significant and ongoing” risk to women.

Sorby pleaded guilty to the murder and attempted rape of Ms Pecka. The judge, Mr Justice King sentenced Sorby to life imprisonment and said the minimum term he would have to serve before the Parole Board could even consider his release would be 24 years.

The judge said: “I should stress that such a release is by no means automatic. The Parole Board will only order your release if they consider it safe and appropriate to do so and are satisfied that you pose no danger to the public. You are a patently dangerous young man.”

Mr Justice King said the murder was for gain during the course of a burglary and the victim was particularly vulnerable. “You inflicted a significant degree of mental and physical suffering upon her before she died some two months after.” It was a prolonged and ferocious attack and it appeared Sorby had deliberately imprisoned Ms Pecka in her bathroom. He said it appeared he had carried out a search of her bedroom after the physical attack upon her, describing him as a “damaged and dangerous” young man.

Though he claimed to regret his attack on Ms Pecka, Sorby was said to have blamed his actions on his previous female victim. He claimed to have experienced flashbacks to that incident during the attack on Ms Pecka, hurting her because he said he blamed his previous victim for hurting him. Sorby wrote in a letter found in his prison cell: “I thought I was hurting the person who had hurt me. When I came back to reality I was covered in blood. I felt like a monster. In another letter for the probation service, he wrote: “I wanted to keep on hurting her. I kept on hitting her on the head. All I wanted to do was hurt this elderly lady.”

The court heard that when Sorby heard that she had died he smashed up his cell, tied a bedsheet round his neck, cut his arm and daubed messages, some in his own blood, on his cell wall, including “evil bastard.”

Det Supt Dick Nuttall, of West Yorkshire Police, said: “Scott Sorby carried out a brutal and cowardly physical and sexual assault on a vulnerable and defenceless lady of 94 in the very place she felt most safe. Mrs Pecka had been an active lady in relatively good health, but after this attack she never left hospital and it is very clear that Sorby’s actions led to her death.”

Det Supt Nuttall added he hoped Sorby’s sentence would bring some sense of justice to the people who cared for Ms Pecka

Questions have been asked about the decision not to give Sorby an indeterminate sentence when he was sentenced for the earlier sex attack in June 2008. At the time, a psychiatric report concluded Sorby “presents a risk of physical and sexual violence towards females and physical violence towards males”.

Note: This report was compiled from reports in the Bradford Telegraph and Argus; the BBC; and the Daily Mail.

The latest statistics from police records and the British Crime Survey show a drop in crime in the 12 months to December 2010. However, the number of sexual offences recorded by police rose from 53,091 in 2009 to 54,602 last year, up 3% – with serious sexual crimes such as rape rising by 6%, up from 42,187 in 2009 to 44,693 last year.

Though gun and knife crime fell by 4% last year, the use of knives in rape went up from 213 in 2009 to 237 in 2010.

In response to the figures, the Home Office acknowledged that “ a high proportion of sexual offences are not reported to the police” and stated that while the latest figures show a sixth consecutive quarterly rise in sexual offences, there are “signs this rise may be slowing”. The spokesperson added, possibly somewhat sceptically “the police have reported improving their reporting of sexual offences …”.

The comments from senior police officers did not inspire confidence. Chief Constable Jon Murphy, head of crime for the Association of Chief Police Officers, smoothly linked sex offences with the downward trend of most crimes saying: “Increases in sex offences, following efforts nationally to improve all areas of sex offence investigation, are also showing signs of slowing.” – a stunning piece of spin.

Chief Constable Keith Bristow, head of crime for the Association of Chief Police Officers, thought the police had been doing a terrific job. He said: “Nationally, we have been working to improve all areas of sex offence investigation, with a particular emphasis on rape in domestic abuse cases.

We remain determined to bring to justice people who commit sexual offences and we are making significant progress in this critical area, particularly around giving victims confidence.” In reality, it is difficult to see how these figures could give anyone the confidence to report an offence.

Rob Garnham, who chairs the Association of Police Authorities, seemed a little less complacent, saying: “Whilst the police have made significant improvements to how they respond to sexual offences in recent years, we are concerned to note a rise in the recording of such offences for a sixth consecutive quarter.” As well he might be.

Police complacency is nothing new. Chief constables rarely if ever accept responsibility for failures to effectively police crimes against women and regularly report improvement in the way they handle such crimes. I have never known any one of them offer hard evidence to support reported improvement – or the comfortable assumption that an increase in the reported incidence of sex crimes reflects better levels of care for victims rather than actual increases in the number of assaults.

In fact, given the current low rate of reporting, repeated investigatory failings and the appallingly low rate of convictions – coupled with several high profile reports of police officers convicted of, or colluding with, offences against women – it can perhaps best be assumed that one of the reasons sexist and violent men attack women is because they are so likely to get away with it.

Nick Herbert, the policing and criminal justice minister, said there was no room for complacency and that while the overall decrease was welcome: “The public rightly remain concerned about levels of crime and particularly antisocial behaviour, (my emphasis) and we are determined to ensure that the police have the right powers to do the job,”.

We have news for Mr Herbert. We think it complacent to emphasise the relatively minor offences involved in anti-social behaviour when there is widespread public concern about sex crimes and other attacks on women. An increase in sex crimes over 6 quarters, at a time when other crimes are decreasing, is a matter for serious alarm – and is of the gravest concern to those of us who have women’s interests and safety at heart.

Nick Herbert will need to focus his attention much more closely if the government is ever to reach its admirable stated target of ending violence against women and girls.